Newsgathering: Law, Regulation, and the Public Interest

Gavin Millar QC and Andrew Scott

First text to draw together all the law and other regulatory rules that govern the practice of newsgathering

Takes into account Lord Justice Leveson's 2012 report published after the public inquiry into issues of British press culture, practices and ethics raised by the News International phone hacking scandal

Newsgathering: Law, Regulation, and the Public Interest

Gavin Millar QC and Andrew Scott

Description

This pioneering work draws together the law and other regulatory rules that relate to newsgathering. Written in the post-Leveson environment, each chapter considers a specific newsgathering practice, and covers ethics, (self-) regulatory rules, common law and statutory oversight.

In addition to covering the law of England and Wales, the work draws on the relevant jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights and applicable EU law.

Written by highly-regarded authors Gavin Millar QC and Dr Andrew Scott, this is the first text to cover the full range of newsgathering issues from a legal perspective.

Newsgathering: Law, Regulation, and the Public Interest

Gavin Millar QC and Andrew Scott

Table of Contents

1: Introduction 2: Newsgathering and the Public Interest by Aileen McColgan 3: Protection of Sources and Materials: General Principles 4: Powers to Compel Disclosure 5: Covert State Powers and Identification of Sources 6: Legal Risks for Sources 7: Payment of Sources 8: Open Government: General Principles 9: Access to Government Information 10: Access to Courts, Court Documents and Other Aspects of the Justice Regime 11: Reporting Public Protest and Events 12: Protection of Journalism in Conflict Situations by Conor McCarthy 13: Intrusive Newsgathering 14: Harassment and Related Wrongs 15: Misrepresentation of Purposes and Entrapment 16: Clandestine Newsgathering 17: Publication Torts and Newsgathering Practice

Newsgathering: Law, Regulation, and the Public Interest

Gavin Millar QC and Andrew Scott

Author Information

Gavin Millar QC, Barrister at Matrix Chambers, and Andrew Scott, Senior Lecturer in Law at the London School of Economics

Gavin Millar QC is a barrister at Matrix Chambers who has a broad practice spanning media, information, public, criminal, employment and discrimination law. Gavin is a noted specialist in all areas of media law including defamation, privacy, breach of confidence, publishing contempts and reporting restrictions. He was named as one of the 100 most influential people in the UK media in the Guardian Media One Hundred 2012, after representing the Telegraph Media Group at the Leveson Inquiry. In 2013 Gavin advised the Guardian on its Pulitzer Prize winning coverage of Edward Snowdens disclosures. He represented the Sun newspaper in the plebgate libel trial and the recent PJS celebrity injunction litigation.

Gavin is recognised as a leading expert in election law, having appeared in many high profile cases in recent years. Gavins publications include Confidential Information in Coppels Information Rights (4th Edn 2014), Protecting Free Expression in J. Lewis and P. Crick eds, Media Law & Ethics in the 21st Century (IBA, 2014) and Media Law and Human Rights (OUP 2009).

Dr Andrew Scott is a senior lecturer in law at the London School of Economics. He is also Assistant Director of the Executive LLM. Andrew's research interests focus on media law and regulation, constitutional law and competition law.

Dr. Conor McCarthy is a practising barrister and member of Monckton Chambers, London. He has previously taught international law at the University of Cambridge and was formerly a visiting fellow at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law. He has published widely on questions of international law, human rights law and issues of free expression. He is often instructed in cases raising questions of free expression or the protection of personal, confidential or privileged information.

Contributors:

Dr Conor McCarthy, and Aileen McColgan

Newsgathering: Law, Regulation, and the Public Interest

Gavin Millar QC and Andrew Scott

Reviews and Awards

"Newsgathering represents an important contribution to the literature on media law. It is a useful resource which serves to illustrate, as the authors show, the myriad ways in which the state can (and does) exercise coercion over the press." - Paul Wragg, Communications Law

"Here is a book that by turns, will fascinate, inform, caution and probably worry a great many editors, journalists and their legal advisers. As a first edition, it will almost undoubtedly emerge as the definitive work of reference on the legal complexities governing the newsgathering process — including the protections as well as the pitfalls ... Practitioners, especially media lawyers, not to mention editors and journalists should all have a copy." - Phillip Taylor MBE and Elizabeth Taylor of Richmond Green Chambers